Quaoar occulted a 15.2 magV. A videocamera Watec 120N+ working in 10.24 s integration mode was used. The event lasted three integration intervals.

January 5 2012

Asteroid (198) Ampella occulted UCAC2 40143290 on Dec 29 2011. The event was captured from Gnosca and from the remote site Bigorio.

January 1 2012

Eight lunar impact candidates were detected so far (with Marco Iten) from 2 distant observatories. 6 other flashes (with the same characteristics of a meteoroid impact) were detected from only a single observatory.

Asteroid (144)Vibilia occulted TYC 1228-00368-1. This event was captured from the observatory with video technique. A 8.56 s duration was measured. It’s the 10th positive occultation recorded. Curiously, the asteroid Vibilia was also observed from Gnosca in a positive 5.1 s double star occultation event the Sep 19 2006. Here a small 4MB AVI file of the event.

The brightness of the 12 mag star UCAC2 43911923 was dimmed for 6.8 s by the 14 mag minor planet (249) Ilse.

September 2 2010

The optical counterpart of the GRB100901A was easily detected from Gnosca. About 12h post-detection that point of light was shining between 17 and 18 mag.

September 1 2010

The 14 mag minor planet (1214) Richilde occulted a 10 magV star in the night of August 28 This image shows the CCD drift-scan of the registered event taken with the main 400 mm f/4 telescope of the observatory. The upper trace was only dark subtracted, the lower trace was electronically processed. The red line shows the intensity of the CCD trace.

The lower image shows the intensity variation (blue line) of the same event registerd simultaneously with a small C8 telescope and a WAT120N+ video camera with GPS time insertion. The red vertical line is placed where the beginning of the occultation occured. Yellow and green intensity lines belong to comparison stars.

May 22 2010

Flyby of the 20 m asteroid 2010KO10 in the night of May 22/23. This 30 s image shows the about 15 mag asteroid trail.

January 29 2010

In the night of Jan 27 2010 was observed the 7th positive occultation. (626) Notburga occulted 2UCAC 46562578. 5 mins and 12 sec before the predicted event, a first luminosity drop was detected. It’s origin is uncertain.

January 15 2010

The 13.3 mag asteroid (442) Eichsfeldia occulted a 12.7 mag star for about 4.8 s in the night of Jan 14 2010.

This animation of the comet C/2007N3 (Lulin) spans about 1 h and one can see the movement of the ion tail. See also this picture.

October 6 2008

The roughly 3 m size object 2008TC3 crossing the sky of the observatory imaged in this 10MB movie.

January 30 2008

The 250m Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 2007TU24 passed above the european nightsky. The January 28th its distance to the earth was 720’000 km. The day after its distance was 630’000km. Its speed was 9,5 km/s relative to the observer. I build up a first and a second animation of this near encounter.

January 1 2008

10 years of minor planet observing : 1998-2008. The total number of the discovered numbered minor planets at Gnosca is 109. 69th rank worldwide.

November 14 2007

A 21 mag positive detection of the optical counterpart of GRB071112C was done 4 hours and 10 mins after the BAT detection. Using FORS2 the VLT measured a redshift of z = 0.823.

The outburts of the comet 17P/Holmes photographed between the clouds. With an angular diameter of 2.5 arcmin it is roughly 4 times larger than the angular diameter of Jupiter. Now the comet is a naked eye object in the Perseus constellation.

May 8 2007

Mr. Kazutami Namikoshi, director of the Japan Shiatsu College, and his wife Kyoko were visiting the Gnosca Observatory. The minor planet 61385 Namikoshi was discovered in Gnosca and was dedicated to the memory of Tokujiro Namikoshi (1905-2000) who was the founder of the worldknown Namikoshi Shiatsu therapy.

January 30 2007

Since 2002 ten positive optical GRB counterparts were detected. This time was the turn of GRB070125.

January 2 2007

The GRB060218 was captured from Gnosca the Feb 27 2006 and again the Dec 10 2006.

December 29 2006

The PHA asteroid 2006XG1 was imaged from Gnosca, just in the discovery day (Dec 11) and about 2 weeks after (Dec. 28). See also this link to see the positional measurements.

October 26 2006

The WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) satellite was imaged from Gnosca in the night of Oct 26 near the antisolar point.

The occultation of the double star TYC 1879-02151-1 by the asteroid (144) Vibilia was positive. Its duration was 5.1 s. This is the 4th positive occultation recorded here in Gnosca.

August 1 2006

The asteroid (47164)Ticino, previously designed as 1999TX13, is now circling in the sky around the sun. The asteroid Ticino was discovered at Gnosca in 1999.

May 26 2006

At 16:28:30 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 060526.Observations at Gnosca begun at 20:50 UT, may 26, about 4.5 h later the Swift-BAT-trigger, under fair sky conditions. Imaging lasted until 23:40 UT. As a result a first stacked R-filtered image centred at 21:14 UT shows the OT at 18.8 mag with SNR = 9. (USNO A2.0 catalog). A second stacked R-filtered image centred at 23:20 UT shows the OT at the same magnitude and same SNR. The measured coordinates of the OT were: RA = 15h 31m 18.34s, decl = +00d 17m 04.7s (UCAC2 catalog). Observations continued from 20:40 UT to 22:30 UT, may 27 (about 27 h later the Swift BAT trigger), under good sky conditions. A stacked R-filtered image centred at 21:35 UT shows the OT at about 21 mag with SNR = 4. (USNO A2.0 catalog). Observations continued from 21:30 UT to 22:50 UT, may 29, under good but windy sky conditions. A stacked unfiltered image centred at 22:10 UT don’t show the OT anymore (limiting mag: about 21 at SNR = 3).

May 15 2006

The MACE2006 (Meeting on Asteroids and Comets in Europe) took place in the austrian capital Wien and ended the May 14 with this group photo.

March 25 2006

The Minor Planet Center accepted the proposal of the observatory to assign the name of the great theoretical physicist John A. Wheeler to the minor planet N. 31555 discovered the march 7 1999 at Gnosca. Here the citation:

John Wheeler (b. 1911) is one of the finest theoretical physicists.From nuclear physics, to quantum theory, to relativity and gravitation,Wheeler’s work has set the trajectory of research for half a century.

March 14 2006

The comet C/2006A1 Pojmanski in the morning sky of Gnosca.

February 19 2006

Two images show the shift of the north celestial pole between 2000 and 2006. In six years the apparent center of rotation of the stars has moved by about 2 minutes of arc. This is a manifestation of the drift of the earth rotational axis, also known under the name of precession of the equinoxes.

February 10 2006

The images on GRB060206 begun only 24h after the detection made by the Swift-BAT satellite. In this image one can see the optical counterpart at about 20 mag. A spectra made by the Lick Observatory showed a redshift of z = 4.05 for this OT.

February 7 2006

This article on Astronomy and Astrophysics describes and awards the photometric work made also at Gnosca on the double minor planets Tama, Berna, Frostia and Debussy.

January 24 2006

The night of Jan 24 at 15:55UT the HETE satellite detected a long gamma sky signal. At 19:47UT I could observe the same sky region with my telescope. A faint optical signal very near an annoying 15 mag star was to see. The day after I photographed the sky region anew: apparently the signal faded beyond my detection threshold. Here one can see an animation of the two pictures (of Jan 24 and 25).

These two images show the detection of the GRB060124 (the two white lines show the position of the optical counterpart of the GRB). The blue dots in the graph refer to the intensity of both stars in the picture of the january 24th. The red dots refer to the image of january 25th. From both curves one can see that the optical counterpart had faded.

January 21 2006

In the first hours of January 21 the asteroid 2006BA was traveling at about 750’000 km from the Earth. It was quite rapid and it was heading to the south. Its brightness was around the 17 mag. That night only the friend Peter Birtwhistle of the Great Shefford Observatory (obs code J95) and I from Gnosca (obs code 143) were observing 2006BA. Curiously Peter was shooting CCD pictures exactly at the same moment as I did. Here the astrometry of two contemporary observations(to the tenth of a second):

In the left image I show these two positions. The Great Shefford Observatory (J95) is located in Great Britain and is at the North-West from Gnosca (143): therefore the position of the asteroid is more South-East from the position of Gnosca. Between these two positions I could measure about 4 arcminutes, i.e. about 1/8 of the Moon angular diameter. In the right image one can see the original picture of 2006BA taken from Gnosca.

Some hours later 2006BA was transiting at 500’000 km from the earth orbit. This object is not classified as PHA (Potentially Hazardous Asteroid) because it has a too small estimated diameter (roughly 15 m). The positional measurements from Gnosca were the last. No one additional observatory photographed 2006BA.

January 8 2006

The satellite Giove-A, the pioneer of the european fleet of GPS satellite system, was captured above Gnosca the Jan 8 2006. This image shows the faint trace of the satellite transiting at a distance of 23’000 km.